Hello all, another tournament report for you today! I've been playing very little lately, and the games that I have been playing have been somewhat silly affairs, mostly including Krueger2 and the Celestial Fulcrum.
However, I wanted one more shot at Tanith + Baldur1 in ADR, so that's what I took. I hadn't played either list since the LAST tournament in November. That meant I'd be a little rusty, but I wasn't too concerned.
(that isn't to say I should have been concerned, just that I wasn't, haha!)
Let's jump right into it!
Tournament Scene:
There were a total of 14 players in attendance. Not bad for a Steamroller. Let's see if I can remember any of the factions:
1x Circle (me)
2x Skorne
2x Khador
1x Mercs
1x Convergence
1x Legion
1x Cygnar
1x Menoth
1x Cryx
Other stuff, apparently. Lol.
Here are my lists:
Last chance to play ADR... |
I've been hating life against Khador lately, and I was hopeful that I could dodge it. I was successful in my first game:
Game 1: Circle Orboros vs. Skorne!!
His list:
Pairing debate:
I was confident with either list. Probably more confident with Baldur honestly, but here's the thing: Tanith has some great match ups and some AWFUL ones, as opposed to Baldur1, who plays well into most things. I'd rather just get Tanith out of the way now so I could be free to play Baldur all day, and this was a great opportunity to do so.
>I dropped Tanith.
>> John dropped Zaadesh2.
>>> I won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pregame thoughts:
I'd played Zaadesh2 in my most recent tournament, though my opponent ended up rolling abysmally enough that I only lost like 4 Mannikins. He also forgot to cast his counter-charge spell turn 1, which made that game far more simple. So, not a great indicator of how the list can do.
After looking at his list, I decided that if I could kill the Gladiator early on, the game would become very difficult for my opponent.
On the scenario front, bricked-up Skorne really struggle if you split them up. This scenario was something I could hopefully take advantage of.
For ADR, I took one Sentry Stone unit out, and put in Alten.
Deployment:
Water in the middle there. |
This is the EXACT same beast load out as my last Zaadesh2 opponent. Haha, funny how that works out sometimes. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything up almost as far as it could go. It's a huge help when an opponent has ZERO ranged or magic attacks. You can clump everything up and have no fear. Kind of.
The board matches my basing! |
Skorne Turn 1:
John also ran his guys up far. He put up Battle Driven (countercharge for battle group) and put Inviolable Resolve on Despoiler. Importantly, the Agonizer didn't do his cry.
How close was too close? |
Circle Turn 2:
There it was: a great opportunity for me to kill his Gladiator right away! It was too good of an opportunity to pass up!
Una1 went first and shot the Gladiator with Dog Pile. She also shot a couple Nihilators for fun.
Mannikins sprayed some more Nihilators out of the way.
Tanith went and put Primal on a Griffon and Scything Touch on another.
Feral put Primal on the second Griffon.
Scything Touch Griffon charged the Gladiator and spiked some nice dice, killing the Gladiator, and putting some damage on the Sentry next to him.
(note that I charged so that the Sentry would also be in his melee range to both prevent a counter charge, and as a backup charge target for my second Griffon)
Second Griffon went, and put some hefty damage on the Sentry, but didn't quite finish it.
Reeves then went and double tapped the Sentry. With Scything Touch up, they were hitting at POW 21. They killed the Sentry easily enough.
Big swing for me, as I took out two heavies in a turn. The Gladiator was by far the most crucial piece!
Other stuff ran around and looked important.
Tanith's Griffon went to contest the far-right flag but stayed out of Tiberion's charge range.
Big (huge) Turn 2 for me. Half the heavies, gone, for the price of two Griffons. |
Skorne Turn 2:
John wasn't too happy with the result, but he kept at it.
Two Nihilators berserked their way through about 5 Reeves.
His two heavies consolidated toward my left, mostly abandoning the right flag.
Zaadesh put up a few cloud templates.
Between the two heavies and Zaadesh, both of my Griffons died deaths. Only one player has ever missed swings on my DEF 15 Griffons, in any game. Isn't that nuts?
Beast handler guys moved to get one of their number within 4" of the right flag.
Circle Turn 3:
I didn't have any good charge targets, but decided I didn't really mind. I could stay outside his threat ranges and start scoring.
Tanith's Griffon flew up and killed the Beast Handler contesting the flag.
Blackclad ran to hold the flag.
Reeves and Tanith and Una and Mannikins combined to finish off the Nihilators.
Alten put a shot into Tiberion's spirit.
I managed to score twice this turn.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle
Skorne isn't looking good right now... |
Skorne Turn 3:
John wouldn't give up!
He ran his beasts up to contest the left flag, and put a few clouds up to screen the Agonizer from the Reeves.
His beast handlers again moved in to contest the right flag.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
I think he might have killed my Sentry Stone too. Alas! |
Circle Turn 4:
I had a good chance to beat John this turn, though I wouldn't actually win the game yet.
First I needed to remove the Agonizer, after which my heavies should make short work of John's heavies.
Reeves and Una combined to kill off the Agonizer easily enough.
Tanith POPPED HER FEAT and walked away from the Despoiler's aura of double-cost spells. She then put up Scything Touch on the Stalker, and Primal on the Stalker and the Feral.
Blackclad got Hunter's Mark on Tiberion for a free charge.
Stalker charged Tiberion and killed him, putting some damage on Despoiler as well.
Feral walked up and clawed Despoiler's face off (at effective POW 21).
I cleared the right flag and got another point.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle
Zaadesh and some support pieces. Heh... |
Skorne Turn 4:
Zaadesh used Flashing Blade on my models, but he wasn't strong enough to kill either of my heavies. He managed to kill a few Reeves though.
He again managed to contest both flags.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
That's basically all she wrote... |
Circle Turn 5:
The Feral managed to take like 10 points off of Zaadesh with his frenzy, and the Stalker almost managed to take the Feral's head off.
I just concentrated on killing all remaining support pieces, and left Zaadesh alive. Because Zaadesh was unable to contest the left flag, I ended up winning via scenario, despite the fact that Zaadesh was John's only model remaining.
Game 1 Results: Win for Circle Orboros via scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
Man, Skorne just needs an update. Also, Circle just has Skorne's number in general. I've had tough games against Skorne, but always felt like I was advantaged. That even when the Skorne player was more skilled than me.
Otherwise, I think that John exposed his Gladiator too soon. With that water in the middle of the board, he needed pathfinder bad. When I took that extra speed and pathfinder away, John was effectively beaten.
In my opinion, that single factor determined the outcome of the game. With a Gladiator still up and running, I'd have had a much more difficult time.
John was as always a great opponent, and I'd be happy to play him anytime. I really hope the new errata is kind to Skorne.
Tournament Scene:
Both Khador players won, as well as a Mercs player and the other Skorne player. Probably a few others as well. I don't really remember.
I just knew that I didn't want to play that Khador nonsense!
Game 2: Circle Orboros vs. (you guessed it!) Khador!!!
His lists:
I'd never played vs. Vlad2 before. |
Pairings Debate:
Well, I'd specifically made my Tanith list with Khador jack-heavy lists in mind. So, I was probably just going to drop Tanith.
However, I'd never played against Khador with her up to this point, so I wasn't really sure. Baldur1 had beaten most Khador armies I'd played against, and there was a strong argument for him in this game as well.
I decided that if I had made an armor-cracking list specifically to beat Khador, I should probably just play that list. Why else go through all that trouble?
>I dropped Tanith.
>>Josh dropped Karchev.
>>> Josh won the roll to go first, and selected the "good" side of the table.
Pregame thoughts:
Well... shite.
I did my ADR, and realized that I didn't have a great 4-point piece available if I took my Sentry Stones out. I could use 3 War Wolves, followed by ... my Blood Witch?
That's what I ended up doing, but I felt kind of lame about it.
My idea was to have the Reeves/War Wolves get some work done on Jacks before they could get to me. If I could have the Griffons + Reeves + Wolves kill two heavies right away, I'd be in okay shape. It would let me have both of my heavies and a Griffon and the Reeves left to deal with the rest of his force, which was probably enough. Maybe.
Deployment:
(my apologies in advance - the sun was at just the perfect angle to make many of the pictures awful)
I hadn't used the Blood Witch and War Wolves for like... 3 months or something. Heh. |
Funny, but I'd never played against a Mad Dog before this game. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything up pretty far to threaten stuff.
Kind of a cool "fog of war" effect going on here, right? lol |
Khador Turn 1:
Josh also ran up, though you couldn't tell it by looking at the picture.
Also, Tanith was apparently in range of Behemoth, who hit her with both shots (needing 11's), and nearly transfer-killed my Griffon. Wasn't expecting that turn 1.
Edit: You know, maybe I'm just skipping a turn. That was probably on the bottom of Turn 2. I think the rest of the report reflects that skipping. I'm not going to go back - Turn 2 was essentially pretty boring for both of us.
The Griffon shadows are actually kind of cool looking. |
Circle Turn 2:
I took a really long time this turn. Without experience with the Wolves, I just couldn't figure out how to use them well. I ended up botching it a little bit at least.
My target was a Juggernaut on the right, and maybe the Mad Dog as well.
I'd already put Scything Touch on a War Wolf (and upkept it), so I ran the War Wolves up to stare down the Juggernaut.
One Reeve went, and shot the Juggernaut. This triggered Sic'em, and two of the War Wolves got into the Juggernaut. I didn't remember that the Mad Dog could counter-charge though, and he did. He missed, but it messed up other activations of mine. Whoops!
Still, both War Wolves got some hits on the Juggernaut, and the Reeves also hit him somewhat hard with their effective POW 21 shots (one was at POW 20).
Griffons and Stalker then combined to finish off both the Juggernaut and the Mad Dog. Stalker used Sprint to stay outside of the Khador jacks' threat ranges.
One thing I had asked earlier this turn was if Josh had any way of giving his jacks pathfinder. He said no, but I neglected to remember: the Kodiak just has pathfinder. I had the Feral right in its threat range.
(just to make sure there's not confusion: I don't think Josh was trying to hold anything back. My own fault that I forgot the Kodiak had pathfinder.)
I discovered this after I had already moved most of my models, including Tanith, who could have at least put Admonition on the thing.
Ah well.
Feral is on the left there. Sorry, this angle was the only way to get a half-decent picture. :-/ |
Khador Turn 2:
This turn was pretty decent for Josh.
After realizing my mistake with the Feral, I started looking for opportunities to stop the Kodiak from charging.
My first opportunity was with the Clamjack, who swung on the Griffon. He hit all his swings though, and I couldn't dodge with the Griffon into the Kodiak. doh!
Behemoth killed some Reeves, and the Kodiak advanced 3".
Karchev advanced and POPPED HIS FEAT.
Kodiak charged the Feral. He rolled poorly on two damage rolls (everything was fully boosted), but his final explosion attack needed an "8" to kill the Feral, which he got.
Really bad swing for me.
The Griffon also died. Lol. |
Circle Turn 3:
I didn't know what to do. If the Feral had survived, I'd have been in a good place. Without the Feral, I was probably screwed.
But I wasn't going to give up without a fight!
Hilariously, the War Wolf with Scything Touch survived, so the remaining Griffon and it managed to do a small amount of damage on the nearest Clamjack, who was at that point open.
I think the Reeves also got in on the action, but mostly failed their damage rolls.
Tanith managed to get Affliction off on one of the Clamjacks, and did a point of damage to it with her gun as well. She also put Scything Touch on the Stalker.
Blackclad put Hunter's Mark on the Kodiak, and the Stalker charged it and killed it easily.
See, if the Feral had lived, it could have killed the Kodiak, and the Stalker could have finished off the open Clamjack. Ah well!
My clock is really running low at this point. |
Khador Turn 3:
Josh cleaned up my stuff near him, besides the Griffon. Instead, he killed Una with Behemoth, then killed a bunch of Reeves with his next shot.. He couldn't miss any of his 11's to hit with Behemoth this game - I think he hit with literally every shot.
Circle Turn 4:
I got like 14 damage on one Clamjack with Affliction + Reeves. Stalker ran up and killed another Clamjack.
Really low on time at this point.
Tanith scored a point.
Score: 1-0, "advantage" Circle.
Stalker is still mostly intact... |
Khador Turn 4:
Josh ran a Juggernaut up to contest the flag. He did some damage to my Stalker with Behemoth.
Circle Turn 5:
I was at about 5 minutes left. I managed to kill the Juggernaut with the Stalker, but it just wasn't fast enough.
I scored again, but had fewer than 15 second remaining.
Khador Turn 5:
Josh took his time to kill all of my remaining models that he could, and heavily contested my flag, while putting Karchev on his own flag to score.
Score: 2-1, "advantage" Circle
Circle Turn 6:
It was impossible to win, as a turn had to be a minimum of 15 seconds, and I had 6. I couldn't even score!
Because Josh had been so deliberate in preventing my own scoring, I took my 6 seconds to move my Shifting Stones up to contest his flag so he wouldn't score.
The game ended.
Game 2 Results: Loss for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, that sucked. There were a few factors to this game that contributed to the loss.
First, I was fully capable of keeping the Feral alive, but didn't. In my opinion, that's the biggest fail.
Second, Behemoth had a way bigger impact on the game than I assumed he would. He hit EVERY shot, and consistently spiked damage. When a heavy with RAT 4 can (at range, without aiming) cause 21 points of damage to DEF/ARM 15 in a single turn, that's pretty good.
Third, I really mismanaged my clock this game. Using models I wasn't super familiar with in a tournament setting was a good chance to burn a LOT of extra clock. Not the best decision on my part.
Finally, I would have just been better off playing Baldur into him. If I could keep the Juggernauts away (have the Bloodtrackers kill one, and have Megalith kill the other), then the Wrath could run the table on the rest of them. Even with the feat, POW 16 isn't enough to take down my ARM 22.
Josh is a really solid, fundamentally sound player. He's very difficult to beat, and has the tournament record to show that. Hopefully I can beat him next time, but who knows? :)
Tournament Scene:
This round would determine if we were going to play 3 games or 4 games. I had pretty decent tie breaker scores (at least, for a 1-1 guy), so I hoped that I could be the one to pair up against an undefeated player. If I did (and somehow won), I'd have a great strength of schedule and have a decent chance to at least place at this event. And, the tournament would only last 3 rounds, which was a nice fringe benefit :)
The undefeated players remaining were Josh (my last round opponent), Colin (Skorne), and Ryan (Mercs). All really solid players.
Would I get the pair down/up?
Game 3: Circle Orboros vs. Ryan's Mercenaries!!
His Lists:
Two pretty tough Mercs casters. Not really anything I wanted to deal with. |
Pairings Debate:
This was easy, actually. Normally, I'd just drop Baldur1. Easy.
It was even easier though, because the tournament rules say that even though a fourth game was possible, if the tournament only goes 3 rounds and I hadn't played both casters, I'd be disqualified.
Because my only hope of placing in this event was to win this game, I essentially had zero choice.
Ryan, on the other hand, could pick and choose.
I could have spent time worrying, but I'm proud to say that I chose not to care. Either list had things I would struggle against. Why waste time worrying?
> I dropped Baldur1.
>> Ryan dropped Ossrum.
>>> Someone (don't remember who) won the roll to go first, and I ended up getting first turn.
Pregame thoughts:
Ryan and I had already played a tournament game with these exact lists (if you follow that link, it was game 4. I didn't exactly deserve to win that game, but squeaked out a win nonetheless. This would be my chance to redeem myself.
Ryan's Mortars were what I was worried about most. Their huge range, combined with some really solid mobility from the feat would make Baldur very difficult to protect. I would need to use as much line of sight blocking terrain as possible.
My goal was to keep the Wrath near to Ryan's zone to contest it if needed, while locking down my own zone and eventually winning via scenario.
One thing I also needed to avoid was letting two of the Drillers get into my Wrath on the same turn. Pretty standard as my goal, but in this case, it was vital. Finishing both Drillers off would mean that Ryan couldn't kill the Wrath. That isn't enough to win by itself, but the Wrath can kill a LOT of stuff in a turn. It only takes a couple turns of it rampaging unchecking to win the game for me on its own.
Deployment:
This list is actually fully painted. Awesome :) |
Prey went on the Forgeguard. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything up as far as I could. I made sure to keep the Bloodtrackers and Druids within Baldur's 12" of blast damage protection.
Stone Skin went on the Wrath.
I positioned myself to be able to forest walk Turn 2 into the zone to start threatening scoring.
Mercs Turn 1:
Ryan also ran forward. He didn't really have Ossrum in a position where he could easily score on his own zone, which was less thing to worry about.
Forgeguard are directly across from the Bloodtrackers. Probably a good thing for me, right? |
I decided to try and kill one of the spray Gun Bunnies with ranged attacks this turn.
Druids used apparition to get closer to Ryan's front lines. Then they used their knockdown spell to knock both Drillers and a Gun Bunny down. Other shots pushed back a different Gun Bunny.
Bloodtrackers killed off 6 Forgeguard (the only ones I could reach).
Mannikins all sprayed the knocked down Bunny, and I had enough fury to boost most of their damage.
Megalith trampled forward and used Earth Spikes to put more damage on the Bunny.
Wrath shambled forward as well, shooting at the Bunny and finishing it.
Baldur grew a forest on himself, then used Tree Walker to get into the zone. I thought about it for a minute, and decided that I didn't need my feat this turn. As you'll see, I was probably wrong. But it wasn't me forgetting - just me not realizing the kind of threat ranges Drillers have with Ossrum's feat.
Mercs Turn 2:
Ryan saw an opportunity to kill off Megalith, who was too far forward. I had thought that Mega's animus of rough terrain was enough, but Ossrum's feat apparently gives his models pathfinder. Whoops!
So, Ossrum decided that it was feat turn. He POPPED HIS FEAT, and then used a ton of support models and the remaining Gun Bunnies to kill off half my Druids and a few of my Bloodtrackers as well.
His ambushing solo also came in and killed a few Bloodtrackers.
Both Mortars shot at Megalith, but really failed their rolls.
Drillers charged in and punched Megalith. One of them missed their charge attack though, and I again got lucky, with Megalith sitting on 2 health by the end of the turn.
Very lucky indeed!
Well, my models sure took a pounding this turn. Very avoidable if I had just popped my feat. Ah well. |
Circle Turn 3:
Well, Megalith surviving wasn't something I should have expected, but I needed to take advantage of it. I needed to kill off both of the Drillers, and also Anastasia, who was contesting the zone.
Druids went first and killed some support models, also getting out of the Wrath's way.
Wrath went next and killed one Driller. Maybe some damage on another as well.
It occurs to me right now: if they weren't within Ossrum's 12" command, should those drillers be benefitting from the +ARM bonus of the feat? We played them as having the additional armor. Something to remember to ask.
At any rate, the Wrath only used three fury so Baldur would have a transfer target.
Baldur went and cycled Stone Skin onto Megalith.
Megalith couldn't quite finish the final Driller.
Enter the Sentry Stones and Mannikins. I had two Mannikins charge the Driller. I needed a "12" for damage on one roll (one box left at dice-11). In dramatic fashion, the first Mannikin hit and got an "11", not quite good enough.
The second Mannikin hit, and rolled a "14" or something for damage, finishing off the Driller. Whew!
I then used a Bloodtracker, Blackclad, and Mannikin to try shooting down Anastasia. Mostly back arcs or boosted attacks, but all of them missed her DEF 15. So, I wouldn't be scoring this turn.
Still, I had killed the only credible threats to the Wrath. Now I'd just need to keep Baldur alive long enough for that advantage to take effect.
For good measure, I POPPED MY FEAT, keeping Ryan from getting much done in my zone.
Sorry for the blur. Still forgetting about the objective smoke apparently, lol. |
Mercs Turn 3:
Ryan killed off most of my remaining infantry with an impressive display of firepower and Forge Guard finally rolling averagely.
Megalith also got killed.
In a stroke of luck for me, Anastasia moved out of my zone, no longer contesting it.
I scored a point.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
I think one of the Sentry Stones dodged being killed this turn too. |
Circle Turn 4:
I needed to get some solid damage done this turn and make it difficult for Ryan to contest my zone.
Wrath ambled up and punched two Bunnies to death, keeping only 3 fury on him so I could transfer.
Mannikins and Blackclad combined to kill off Anastasia and the remaining three Forge Guard.
Nothing was in easy contest range of my zone. Ryan was running out of models.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
No picture apparently.
Mercs Turn 4:
Ryan needed to find a way to kill Baldur soon, or the game would soon be over.
He managed to kill both Sentry Stones with his Mortars. Luckily, I'd started to remember my objective's cloud.
The Piper ran into my zone to contest.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
I'm starting to run out of models as well. Luckily, the Wrath is full health. |
I used the objective smoke and grew Baldur's forest to block line of sight.
Wrath walked up and punched some more stuff. I think one of them was the last Bunny.
Blackclad finished off the Piper.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
Baldur has a lot of terrain to hide behind apparently. |
Mercs Turn 5:
Ryan ran Orin into my zone.
Mortars killed the Blackclad, and put some damage on my objective.
Holt ran toward Baldur in a desperate flanking attempt.
I had about 5 minutes on my clock.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
Can I finish this game in time? |
Circle Turn 6:
I had 5 minutes or less for this turn. If I had more, I would probably just have sent the Wrath back to my own zone and used him to clear it a couple turns in a row. I didn't have the time for that, unfortunately.
But, I could still win this turn.
Wrath charged the objective to the left, killing it in two punches, which was good, because he was outside Baldur's control. He averages like 18 or 19 damage on that thing in two punches anyways. A risk, but not a huge one.
With the objective down, the Wrath guaranteed a win for me, because he would also control the zone for a point.
But, with the win, I'd be in contention to place, and I decided to try for one more control point.
Stones shifted Baldur to behind Orin.
Baldur boosted a swing into Orin's back arc and killed him, allowing Baldur to get one more CP.
The game ended.
Game 3 Results: Win via scenario for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
It's always a tough game against Ryan. I got lucky this time because Megalith survived. If he hadn't, the game would have been much more difficult.
I believe that I should have popped my feat on Turn 2 or Turn 4. Turn 2 would have been optimal, though Turn 4 would have been ball-busting and probably won me the game, since Ryan wouldn't have been able to run something into my zone to contest.
As things stood, I used the feat on Turn 3. It helped, but not enough to make as big an impact on the game as I would prefer. The feat is SO GOOD in some match ups (like this one), but only if I use it effectively.
I really struggled with the clock this tournament. That's one of the many reasons it's good to play lots of games if you're planning on playing in tournaments. Familiarity with the game makes turns go much faster.
Tournament Scene:
I had won my game, which meant that only one undefeated player remained. Josh, my round 2 opponent, won in the finals vs. Colin's Skorne in a truly titanic battle of skill and heavy armor.
So, my strength of schedule increased. John, my round 1 opponent also won his game. Ryan had been undefeated until he played me.
That gave me a strength of schedule of 6 (total opponent wins).
Colin also had a 6.
It went into tie-breakers.
I had 13 total CP.
Colin had... 4.
Tournament Results: 2nd place for Circle Orboros!!
Post-tournament thoughts:
I ended up winning $35 in store credit, which I will redeem at a later date. I should probably order some Reeve Hunters. Don't have them yet, and I assume I'll want them with the inevitable Wolf Sworn theme force.
3 fun games, 3 great opponents! I got lucky a few times, though I also got very unlucky a few times as well. More than anything, my lack of recent playtime has really impacted my own performance. I need more practice if I want to win games.
What's next:
At this point, I'm not sure. I have Store Wars on January 28. That means my next "big" tournament is after the errata, which may dramatically change my lists.
I've been enjoying Krueger2 lately, though I also like Una2's card so far, and have enough Griffons to play her. I need to pay someone to paint more models - Celestial Fulcrum, Una2, Tanith, oldschool Pureblood and Feral, Grayle, and like 7 Griffons. If I do all those at once, Baldur1 will be my only real option, haha.
I also have a possible event on January 14th, though my wife just reminded me that I may have further obligations that weekend as well. We'll just have to see.
Anyways, that's it for today! Go watch Star Wars (it's even better the second time!) and have a Merry Christmas!
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